CIRCLE–The Yukon Quest 300 was won by a musher competing in his very first race.

The Goldstream Valley was done proud when Brent Sass, the first-time musher who was saved on Eagle Summit by a breathtaking dog named Silver, came off the Yukon River into Circle to win the 300 in convincing fashion at 2:01 p.m. Tuesday.

Silver and co-leader Madonna directed Sass and his team into the dog yard outside the Circle Firehouse, which once served as a one-room jailhouse in this original Yukon Gold Rush town.

"I'm pretty overwhelmed," said Sass while he bedded down the team on piles of straw.

"I didn't expect this at all. I knew that I had a decent dog team, and I was confident in myself as a musher. But I just wanted to finish."

Sass was the first 300 musher to conquer Eagle Summit, the 3,650-foot behemoth block of ice and stone that was covered by meager snow, plenty of rain and blistering winds early Monday morning. "I think that run over Eagle Summit was the difference," said Sass. "That, and I stuck to my original schedule. I had a schedule originally planned and I stuck to it to a T."

Under the most harrowing of circumstances, Sass and his dogs survived zero visibility and no trail to follow and a harrowing descent down walls of ice.

Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race rookie Regina Wycoff and her team came upon Sass and fellow 300 musher Randy Chappel, who were considering a hunkering down of man and beast to wait out the storm.

"Here comes this crazy musher saying, ‘Let's go! Let's go!‚'" said Sass. "So we went. It was great."

Chappel fell from his sled and lost his team going down a treacherous glacial wall, and Wycoff loaded him onto her sled. She stood on one runner while Chappel stood on the other.

Sass led the way, and they were all following Silver. The 3-year old Alaskan husky is a natural leader, a truly elegant black and brown animal with intelligent brown eyes and trailbraking instincts.

When Silver came into the dog yard at Circle on Tuesday, he started to run right toward Wycoff's team, which was sleeping before their trek on toward Eagle.

"They're buddies," said Sass.

"They look like they're ready to keep going," said Wycoff, who was tending her team nearby.

Silver and Madonna led Sass' team, followed by team dogs Pixie, York, Ross, Melville and Jean, and then anchored by wheel dogs Messiah and Taco.

Sass had to drop Buster, Jekyll and Ling Ling along the way.

"I was sad about that," said Sass. "Ling Ling got me over Rosebud."

Taking care of the team's handling chores during the 300 was his father Mark Sass, in from Minnesota to witness the race every step of the way.

"It was just keeping up with him, seeing the process of how he's been doing this," he said. "I'm pretty proud. This is pretty neat."

Sass said he intends to run the 1,000-mile Quest next year.

"I'm there," said Sass.